The following is a simple excerpt from the recent research points of the cathode industry chain in the Prophet's research report;
How to see the price fluctuation of lithium cobalt sulfuric acid and its precursor in the first quarter? At present, from the price point of view, lithium carbonate is stronger than lithium hydroxide, lithium is stronger than cobalt, and nickel sulfate is stronger than cobalt sulfate, mainly because the trend of high nickel in iron and lithium is accelerating. In (1) 1, the recovery capacity of Bangpu broke out (metal slag led to a monthly shipment of 2wh+ materials, mainly including nickel beans to recover cobalt and produce nickel sulfate), which further broke the balance between supply and demand of nickel sulfate, resulting in a higher premium of cobalt sulfate and nickel sulfate than metal cobalt and nickel, and a shortage of sulfate in the midstream led to a demand for hedging cobalt futures, leading to a sharp rise in cobalt prices around the Spring Festival. (2) Lithium: As the demand for iron and lithium continues to exceed expectations, the shortage of lithium carbonate is expected to continue, but in the later period, especially in salt lakes with low cost and many impurities, it is expected that the future transaction volume will be large. (3) Cobalt: Due to supply and social inventory factors, it is expected that the supply and demand of Q2 will be greatly disturbed. The recent sharp drop in cobalt prices is closely related to the arrival of overseas metallic cobalt, inventory disturbance and weakened demand for hedging. At present, the inventory of DS is very large, and most other companies think that there is no shortage of raw materials at present. Cobalt prices are expected to rise again in the third quarter. 2. According to the investigation, the repair of Bumpo recovery device may be in June, because Bumpo recovery mainly comes from ATL 3C battery waste, and cobalt is mainly recovered. It is expected that the external demand margin of cobalt sulfate in Ningde system will weaken, but nickel sulfate still needs to be purchased, and nickel sulfate may be stronger than cobalt sulfate in the future.